Turns out, Scary Movie 5‘s trailer was more frightening than Lindsay Lohan expected. Just one day after the spot surfaced, reports are circulating that the actress is upset the film made a cutaway joke at her expense. The rib in question? A scene in the trailer shows the actress screaming and pointing to a television that’s playing fake footage of Lohan’s probation was revoked. (According to reports, earlier scripts had the television playing Herbie: Fully Loaded.)
But even if Lohan wasn’t in on the joke, she should quickly work her way out of the outside. After all, there’s no better way to escape a career-limiting scandal (or a series of career-limiting scandals that includes, most recently, an assault arrest) than to laugh with the mean girl that is Hollywood. And while history has proven that Lohan has a difficult time doing so (after all, this is the actress who complained about jokes on Saturday Night Live, Glee, and an E*TRADE ad), history has also proven that all of Hollywood’s most successful actors learn to laugh along. Below, see five stars who were scary good at handling their headline-making scandals. Take notes, Lohan!
The British actor has become Hollywood’s poster boy for how to handle a scandal: Just days after being arrested for misdemeanor lewd conduct with a prostitute in 1995 — while he was still dating Elizabeth Hurley — Grant appeared on The Tonight Show to mock his PR disaster. “What the hell were you thinking?” Leno famously asked. A few bloody charming jokes and one hit movie (Nine Months) later, and audiences realized he was just a guy, standing in front of an audience, asking them to love him. And, because of his deprecating sense of humor, we still do.
Sober since 1992, Late Late Show host Ferguson has dedicated plenty of airtime to poking fun at his history with alcoholism. And he managed to become a hero doing so — in 2007, the late night host announced he would not be teasing Britney Spears for her meltdown, telling viewers that he once tried to commit suicide while addicted to alcohol (but was too distracted by alcohol to do so). His comments not only encouraged addiction-plagued viewers to get much-needed help, but also helped him raise his late night profile. Slaandjivaa, indeed.
True, Reubens is still as well known for his 1991 arrest for indecent exposure as he is for his beloved character, Pee-Wee Herman. But his self-effacing appearance at the 1991 Video Music Awards, where he asked the audience, “Heard any jokes lately,” quickly became the joke heard ’round the world. So funny, we still remember to laugh.
In 2009, while on the set of Terminator: Salvation, Bale unleashed a rant on the film’s director of photography filled with enough expletives to put David Mamet to shame. After a tape of the rant leaked and quickly went viral, Bale welcomed jokes from critics. As the actor said calling up two DJs at the L.A.-based KROQ who had spent days mocking Bale for his temper. “I have no confusion whatsoever,” Bale said. “I was out of order beyond belief. I was way out of order. I acted like a punk. I regret that … Free free to make fun of me at my expense. I deserve it completely.” Considering the public has all but forgotten the incident — and the Academy handed him a trophy in 2011 — we’d say Bale got the last laugh.
Like Ferguson, Downey has been open about his struggles with addiction during his years of recovery. So open, in fact, that an early scene in Tropic Thunder featured his movie star character drunkenly swigging alcohol while a news reporter referenced his “bad-boy image off-screen.” With Downey’s days as a Hollywood bad boy behind him, the actor launched the iron-strong career that transformed him into a blockbuster star. Hard to believe that the actor was once, like Lohan, uninsurable.
[Image Credit: Dimension Films; DreamWorks; Warner Bros]
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